100 Days Without You (COMPLETED)

Extra Scene: How Mathilde Found Out (I Miss You!)

It's the end of a particularly long and boring lecture and Mathilde has only just survived it. The worst part is that Gun never showed up and it was his day to buy coffee, so she's caffeine deprived which doesn't help her concentrate.

Checking her phone again, she can see he hasn't even seen her message which worries her, so she taps out a question to his roommate Joshua. His reply makes her feel like she needs to check in on Gun now.

It takes three times to get him to answer his door, and when he does, he's wearing his bedsheet like a cape and his skin looks sallow and exhausted.

"Gun? What's going on? Can I come in?"

He lets her in and she sees that he's camped out on his bed, tissues strewn around his mattress, laptop open and playing a sad sounding song in Thai. There are four empty coffee cups and a half filled one and a few empty packets of different snacks.

Gun flops down onto his bed again and Mathilde moves deeper into the room, coming to stand beside him as he flicks a finger over his laptop and the music ends abruptly.

"I don't suppose asking if you're okay is a good plan." She says as she rests her butt on the edge of his bed and gives him a once over. The tear tracks are dirty and visible and look old. "You look terrible by the way."

He laughs throatily as he moves some of the wrappers and makes space for her beside him. "I'm having a bad day."

"Clearly," she says as he adjusts his sheet-cape and grabs one of his plushies to squeeze against his chest. "Want to talk about it?"

"You ever had one of those days when you're anticipating something.. and it doesn't happen?"

Mathilde nods. "Haven't we all. Exams, tests, friends promising you things."

She gives him a pointed look as she nods over at the empty iced coffees.

"I'm so sorry - I should have text you."

"Too right you should have. So, are we talking a binge-watching Netflix kind of day or is it worse?"

He lifts his hand from his sheets and tilts his laptop towards her. There are a dozen open tags, all of them with the name Krist displayed followed by Thai lettering she can't decipher.

On the screen, paused, is a handsome man, mouth open mid-croon. This song has an English title - You're so Beautiful. She looks over at him and he nods, so she presses play. English subtitles roll across the screen and another tear rolls down her friend's cheek.

Mathilde reads them aloud, "I hope you know your love keeps me shining brightly, Lights up the path for me to walk on. Wow! That's so beautiful. Did he write that?"

Gun nods miserably and Mathilde can tell there's something more he wants to tell her. So she flicks off the song and snuggles into him and whispers, "You know you can tell me anything and I won't judge you, Gun?"

There's a moment where Gun snuggles back into her, silently. And then he mumbles against her shoulder, "Singto."

"Huh?"

"My name is Singto. I mean, it's Gun too, but Singto is my preferred name.. if you wanted to call me that?"

"Singto.. I like it, does it have a meaning?"

"Err.. yeah, it means Lion."

"How perfect! Protective and fierce over his pride.. the way you are about your friends."

He lifts his head, "I don't feel fierce today.."

"Lions have to lick their wounds sometimes too. It's not weak to give yourself a mental health day."

"I know.. it's not the first time. But usually.. he would look after me."

She looks at where his gaze is and it's resting on the man on the screen, frozen again in the moment, guitar in his hand.

"You mean... Krist?" Mathilde checks, even though she already knows that's what he means. She just wants to hear him admit it.

"Yeah.." he breathes out, "He's been there for it all." Singto picks up the laptop and passes it to her. "Type in our names. No space."

"You mean he's like.. your partner?"

"Just try."

Mathilde settles the laptop on her knee and opens a new tab, tapping in their names. Almost a million pages pop up and her eyes widen as the first page is a Wikipedia for the man in the music video, a picture of Singto with him, beside a solo portrait.

"Whoa! You guys sure are popular. Do I click through these links or are you going to explain things to me? I mean when you say partner.. is that like a purely platonic thing or.."

Her words have Singto wrapping her in his arms and crying against her shoulder. "I'm sorry Mathilde, I wanted to tell you.."

Then he starts to sob uncontrollably and Mathilde lets him.

Later, when he's fallen into a deep sleep, she flicks through some of the web pages and eventually finds herself on Instagram where Singto has 3M followers. His last post is from just before Mathilde met him, a picture of him surrounded by flowers and gifts, an older man who looks like his father beside him.

The caption is part thank you for all his fans support and part a plea for privacy as he starts his studies. Krist is tagged in the post as part of his thanks, and when she clicks the links she finds that his profile is mostly links to songs and TV series and promotion for different products.

But there are also a few flashback posts of him and Singto and it's clear from the way they are looking at each other that it's deeper than just being partners for work. And his captions demonstrate just how much he likes - no loves - her friend.

Mathilde ends up falling down the rabbit hole as she clicks from link to link. At one point, she snags Singto's headphones and starts watching video clips of them as well as edits made by fans.

It's so clear how much everyone loves them and how big their fan base is. The pictures of them clutching bouquets made of money flowers are incredible and she wonders just how hard it was for Singto to walk away from such incredible love and into the anonymity of his student life.

Watching him act with Krist, she can see how much chemistry they had from their very first show and it's heartbreaking to imagine that their relationship went deeper than this 'Phi-Nong' thing being described by their fans.

Krist must have been distraught when Singto left him behind.

Singto must have been broken when he had to get on the plane.

Everything has been a surprise to Mathilde, but she wants to support her friend, so as he sniffles himself awake, she sets down his laptop and gathers him into her arms.

"Want to talk about it?"

"Yes please."